its for those who, while putting forth their own utmost
endeavor, at the same time count on God's unfailing strength?"

II

BANKING ON GOD'S PROMISES

Isn't it strange that so many Christians while believing, theoretically,
in the reality and trustworthiness of God's promises, do not have the
same sort of practical belief in Him which they show in the promise of
their bank to pay them, on demand, the sum written down in their book of
deposit?

And banks have been known to fail in keeping their very limited
promises, while God has never failed in keeping His unlimited assurances
of blessing.

For so many the strange delusion that God's promises are not to be
counted on in the same literal sense as the promises of our associates
persists through life, but there are fortunate Christians who have their
eyes opened to the truth. And what a difference the knowledge makes to
them!

F. B. Meyer told in one of his public addresses of the transformation
wrought for him when his eyes were opened to the truth. As a boy of
thirteen he had been a student at Brighton College. He was timid and
sensitive, and the older students soon learned that they could make his
life a burden to him. With a sigh of relief he went home at the end of
the first week of school. On Sunday, however, the thought that he must
return came to him with oppressing force. How could he stand up against
the older students? He was idly turning the pages of his Bible when he
came to the 121st Psalm. "How voraciously I devoured it!" he said. "How
I read it again and again, and wrapt it round me! How I took it as my
shield! And the next day I walked into the great expanse in front of the
college so serene and strong. It was my first act of appropriating the
promises of God."

Three years later the student was agonizing because he wanted to be a
minister, yet feared to plan for the work because his voice was weak,
and he feared that he would not have the courage to speak. He had been
asking God to show him His will, and to help him in his difficulty. Then
he found Jeremiah 1:7, and read it for the first time. "With
indescribable feelings I read it again and again, and even now never
come on it without a thrill of emotion," he said of his experience. "It
was the answer to all my perplexing questionings. Yes, I was the child;
I was to go to those to whom He sent me, and speak what He bade me, and
He would be with me and teach my lips."

Another man, who had l